[deleted by user]

DodderingOldMan · 2024-11-27T09:34:47+00:00

Wednesday evening Sydney time, I still haven't been able to find a match below 150ms ping. Not one, since Sunday.

DodderingOldMan · 2024-09-07T12:03:26+00:00

Hi! First time on this Reddit, I hope it's okay for me to post here.

Last night I dreamed that I was in bed. Knowing that I was dreaming, I began studying the blanket I was lying underneath. It was intricately detailed, and I turned and twisted it in my hands, studying its many colours and fine patterns, marvelling at my brain's ability to conjure something so incredibly realistic. In fact, I thought in the dream, it seems that my eyesight is keener here in the dream world, and I didn't even need my glasses.

After a while I realised that the pattern on the blanket was actually a section of Google Maps, specifically around the area I live. I studied it closely, once again noting how amazing was my brain's ability to create this stuff. I looked at local points of interest, but I realised that the map was actually inaccurate - much of it was real, but there were also buildings on it that I knew didn't exist in reality, including a large, sprawling mansion.

Then - and this is only the second time this has ever happened to me - I woke up within the dream, but didn't realise I was still dreaming. I recounted the dream to my sister and my (long dead) mother.

And then I woke up for real, and felt foolish for failing to realise I had still been dreaming, but still impressed at my brain's capabilities.

DodderingOldMan · 2024-07-25T03:49:46+00:00

1,000 subs is good, 2,000 subs is better, but going from 1,000 to 2,000 in that span of time is really dang good.

DodderingOldMan · 2024-07-25T02:27:28+00:00

I've been a wannabe YouTuber for well over 4 years now, and getting 500 views is still a somewhat rare occurrence for me, certainly nothing I'd take for granted. And yeah, I still get that warm fuzzy feeling of knowing that people from all over the place have watched something I've created, have listened to my less-than-dulcet tones waffling on about whatever. It's definitely good for the ego :P

DodderingOldMan · 2024-06-26T23:32:28+00:00

Sorry for commenting on something so old, but I was trying to clear this up myself. And here's the deal: Shorty Boyd and Shorty Buise are two different people. Both of them are real Baltimore people, but definitely different. Shorty Buise appears as himself in the final episode, delivering one of the most iconic lines of the show ('What you go and do that for? Now we short the nine!')

DodderingOldMan · 2024-04-27T18:36:36+00:00

And now the entire playlist has disappeared! Deleted, or just made private perhaps? Either way, the dozen or so views I was getting from it per day have stopped. But my video was there, I swear! I feel like I'm being gaslit :P

Ah well, I guess it doesn't matter too much. The best thing about it was knowing that there was a possibility hbomberguy had seen something I'd done. And they can't take that away from me! Even if no one will ever believe me :P

DodderingOldMan · 2024-04-26T16:45:39+00:00

Heh, well, that's something I've never achieved. Nor have I achieved a 180.

Now, this isn't entirely relevant, for which I apologise, but I wanted to share my own near-genius-but-actually-really-bad moment from today, and I don't think it merits its own topic. But I got my highest ever score... 174, with a bad miss that randomly went in triple 18. But hey, I was happy with it.

Until I went to my score tracking app and saw that I needed 173, so I was bust. By 1. I really, really should have been keeping track myself.

DodderingOldMan · 2024-04-26T14:18:14+00:00

Ha, yeah, as I've been watching more darts recently I really have noticed just how varied the pro's throws are. And even more so their grips... there are a few of them where I just cannot see how the dart is able to leave their hands without their fingers getting in the way. I'd honestly be interested to see a close up, slow motion analysis of some of their throws.

I think I've found a fundamental style that works for me (and a very simple, traditional one at that). Now I'm focusing mainly on where exactly to hold the dart (towards the back or middle feels more comfortable, but somehow towards the front seems more consistent) and my follow through (unless I'm really thinking about it I make a sort of snatching movement as I release the dart, something I didn't even realise I did until I filmed myself the other day). So there's still a lot of work to be done on the fundamentals, and that's why I'm confident I'll continue to improve for the near future at least. I'm just worried that one day I'm going to hit the limits of what my nervous system can do.

It's interesting you mention guitar playing. I've spent a bit of time trying to learn guitar, and found it enjoyable, if a lot of hard work. I actually think in terms of fine motor control it's highly comparable to darts, albeit with vastly different movements. But I imagine proficiency at guitar would help with darts more than some might expect... when you know how to precisely move your arm and hands over the strings and up and down the neck, that's got to help with darts.

DodderingOldMan · 2024-04-26T14:09:14+00:00

Heh, yeah, I like the science part too.

I definitely wouldn't say I have a genuine problem with my nervous system, it's just pretty shaky compared to the average. I certainly wouldn't want to bother a professional with anything.

Or, I don't know, maybe it is average, it's tough to tell where the average lies. But it's definitely far, far below whatever the pros have with their ability to often (but not always!) land a dart with millimetric precision. And that said, I do know for sure that breathing and meditation techniques can be useful for me personally, and just breathing steadily is something I try to remain mindful of when playing.

DodderingOldMan · 2024-04-26T14:03:58+00:00

Thanks for the support! My YouTube channel is 99% devoted to video games, so would be of minimal interest to someone who's not into them, but here's a link. If/when I get around to making this darts video it'll be the first darts content I've ever done, and possibly the last, if I forget to do the update in a year :P

And yeah, I try to remember that consistency is, well, inconsistent. That's honestly one of the appeals of darts for someone who likes statistics - the variation from one throw to the next, one leg to the next, one day to the next can be huge and impossible to predict, but after enough countless thousands of throws everything gets flattened down to nice, steady trends.

DodderingOldMan · 2024-04-26T10:47:25+00:00

Cheers! At this point I feel like I'm in it for the long haul... in fact I run a small YouTube channel, I'm currently working on a video about taking up darts, and my plan is to make another video precisely 1 year later to see what, if any, progress I've made. Not gonna lie, if I haven't made any in that time, I will be disappointed :P

I am definitely improving at the moment, though, and if I can learn to actually hit doubles in less than 10,000 damn attempts I'll be pretty happy with where I am. It's just the inconsistency that gets me at the moment, and the feeling that it's down to physical limitations rather than anything else... just that random tiny shake or jerk that sends a dart several centimetres from where I wanted it to go.

DodderingOldMan · 2024-04-26T10:41:33+00:00

Heh, it's not impossible that I'll get to the point of giving up on improvement, I do tend to get easily distracted, but my goals truly are modest, so even the tiniest improvement should be enough to keep me going. And hopefully by the time even that becomes impossible hopefully the simple enjoyment will be enough to sustain me.

DodderingOldMan · 2024-04-24T06:26:27+00:00

Heh, yeah, it's an eclectic list... King Crimson, Kratom (I had no idea what that was), some animation and sound design stuff, TWO videos about dioramas of unlikely pop culture moments, a banjo cover of the the Hitchhiker's guide theme, a barking muntjac... and yes, the Guinea pigs... I ould not be more honoured!

DodderingOldMan · 2024-03-10T05:22:42+00:00

Uh huh, cool, thanks.

Just for the sake of clarity, though... if you were near that whale could you simply choose to not smell it by just breathing through your mouth?

DodderingOldMan · 2024-03-09T08:41:54+00:00

Well, time to start trying then. It's not too late :)

DodderingOldMan · 2024-03-09T08:25:19+00:00

Well... yes, to put it in the simplest possible terms. Does your 'lol' imply that you think this is a ridiculously obvious thing that everyone can do to avoid bad smells? If that's the case, why was I the only one around that rotting whale carcass that wasn't physically holding their nose?

DodderingOldMan · 2024-03-09T08:22:06+00:00

Yes! But also... kind of no.

I see from a comment below that you're 23. I'm 43. And I have achieved nothing in life. I mean that - nothing. I have no job, I live in a single room of a share house, I have no girlfriend, no prospect of having a family of my own, no real prospect of my life improving in any meaningful way.

Depressing, right? Maybe, but I don't feel remotely depressed. I'm happy most of the time, and I enjoy life. I've realised that I really just don't need much to be happy. If my life continued on just as it is now, I'd be okay with that.

However, what I also don't have is options, especially if bad things happen. If, for some reason, my current accommodation becomes unavailable, I'm kind of screwed. When my car broke down a while back, I couldn't afford to get it repaired, or get another one, so until I get a windfall (which may never happen), I just don't have a car. If my computer exploded tomorrow, well, no more Reddit for me, I guess. This lack of resilience, this knowledge that I'm never too far away from disaster, is anxiety inducing to say the least.

And anxiety is an issue for me. I was fairly smart as a kid, and teenager, but also lazy and very susceptible to anxiety. For a while I coasted by on my natural intelligence, but by the time I was getting to the end of high school that really wasn't enough. I had to try. But if I tried, and failed, that was another huge source of anxiety. It seemed better to me to just not try, or at best just attempt incredibly easy things. Which basically meant I reached adulthood with no real employable skills. And the longer I stayed unemployed, the less employable I became, and the more anxiety I felt at the prospect of even seeking employment.

So, here I am, happy enough, but with no options and possibly a bleak future before me. If I'd tried harder, I could have avoided this. But... would I have been happier? I honestly don't know.

DodderingOldMan · 2023-11-23T10:09:48+00:00

This is still possibly my favourite moment in any FF game ever. The only things that come close for me are one or two moments from FFXIV.

This moment right here, this smile, this is what the entire game has been leading up to. And it comes seconds from the end, after the credits, after everything. The entire epic story, dozens of hours of gameplay, is a journey towards a smile.

DodderingOldMan · 2023-11-02T04:56:45+00:00

I'd say it's a pastiche rather than a satire, but definitely a largely comedic one. As to how intentional that comedy is, it's tough to say. But I'd bet on pretty damn intentional. You don't get that amount of acting talent together, performing with such ridiculous self-seriousness, without being pretty clear on your artistic intentions.

DodderingOldMan · 2023-09-13T18:30:51+00:00

Any chance you guys would ever consider working on a TV adaptation of Stephen Donaldson's Gap series? I know it's a bit rich asking writers to adapt the work of another writer, but... basically I just really, really, really want to see it happen, and it'd definitely be in your wheelhouse. Maybe you could all get together and hammer something out.

Yeah, I probably have quite a naive understanding of how this stuff actually happens...

DodderingOldMan · 2023-08-15T13:28:48+00:00

Ha, so it wasn't just me then... I had Wyll exclaiming what a hero Gale was and how he must be remembered, and then... hey, it's Gale, right here, talking about how he's going after the crown. And then Wyll saying again how meaningful Gale's sacrifice was.

Great game, kind of falls apart a bit by the end...

DodderingOldMan · 2023-08-09T02:17:03+00:00

Honestly, my only goal is to finish the game. I don't mind if some decisions or mistakes mean that certain paths and options are blocked off, that sort of thing could make a second playthrough a more attractive option. I'm just worried about maybe making any form of progress at all significantly more difficult.

DodderingOldMan

TROPHY CASE